Hair drier

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a hair drier. The hair drier includes a casing formed at a rear portion thereof with at least one suction hole, an exhaust pump coupled with the casing such that the exhaust pump is exposed to an exterior by passing through a front area of the casing, a nozzle coupled with a front opening of the exhaust pump, a grill inserted into the exhaust pump adjacent to the nozzle and made from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplastic properties and including an anion material, a heating unit inserted into the exhaust pump at a rearward area of the grill, and a blower unit installed in the casing at a rearward area of the heating unit in order to suck external air and to introduce the external air towards the nozzle. The grill stably generates anions even if a user has used the hair drier for a long period of time.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a hair drier, and more particularly toa hair drier capable of generating hot wind or cold wind for drying wethair.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Hair driers have been widely used in the world for the purpose of dryingwet hair after persons have washed their hair. Recently, a hair driercapable of generating anion or infrared ray in addition to hot wind hasbeen developed and used.

FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E are exploded perspective view of aconventional hair drier, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a grill shownin FIGS. 1A to 1E, and FIG. 3 is an assembled view of the conventionalhair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E.

As shown in FIGS. 1A to 3, the conventional hair drier includes a casing10 having a substantial T-shape. An exhaust pipe 20 and a blower unit 30are installed in an internal cavity of the casing 10. A grill 40 and areflective vessel 71 are accommodated in the exhaust pipe 20. A nozzleis coupled to a front end of the exhaust pipe 20 and a heating unit 60is installed in the reflective vessel 71.

The casing 10 includes a head section 11 forming an upper cavity in theform of an egg, and a leg section 13 forming a linear cavitycommunicated with the upper cavity.

The casing 10 having the above construction is divided into front andrear parts, which are assembled with each other by means of a screw 74screw-coupled into the leg section 13 of the casing 10.

A circular opening 11 a is formed at a front portion of the head section11 so as to allow the exhaust pipe 20 to extend towards an exteriorthrough the circular opening 11 a. A protective cap 12 formed with aplurality of suction holes 12 a is provided at a rear portion of thehead section 11. In addition, a coupling protrusion 11 b is formed at aninner surface of the front part of the head section 11.

Expose holes 13 a and 13 b having rectangular shapes are formed in alongitudinal direction of the leg section 13. A power switch 72 and ahot wind/cold wind switch 73 are installed in the expose holes 13 a and13 b, respectively, such that they are exposed to an exterior. Theexhaust pipe 20 is formed at a front end thereof with a narrow-diametersection 21. An inner large-diameter section 22 and an outerlarge-diameter section 23 are sequentially formed at a rear end of theexhaust pipe 20.

The outer large-diameter section 23 is formed at an outer surfacethereof with a pair of coupling protrusions 23 a.

The exhaust pipe 20 is installed in the casing 10 in such a manner thatthe exhaust pipe 20 may protrude towards the exterior through thecircular opening 11 a. The inner large-diameter section 22 prevents theexhaust pipe 20 from passing through the circular opening 11 a of thecasing 10.

An inner surface of the exhaust pipe 20 is coated with an anionicmaterial layer and an infrared material layer.

The blower unit 30 includes an inner pipe section 31, an outer pipesection 32, which surrounds a predetermined portion of the inner pipesection 31, a motor 33 installed in the inner pipe section 31, and a fan34 installed in the outer pipe section 32. The motor 33 is connected toan external power source (not shown) through a power cable 35.

The inner pipe section 31 is formed at a front end thereof with fourcoupling slots 31 a along a circumferential direction of the inner pipesection 31.

A coupling protrusion 32 a is formed at an outer surface of the outerpipe section 32.

Four partition plates 36 are interposed between the inner pipe section31 and the outer pipe section 32.

The blower unit 30 having the above structure is coupled with theheating unit 60 by inserting a core member 61 of the heating unit intothe coupling slots 31 a of the blower unit 30.

The grill 40 includes a circular outer frame 41 and a plurality oftransverse lattices 42 installed in the circular outer frame 41 whileforming a regular interval therebetween. A guide rib 42 a is formed at acenter portion of each transverse lattice 42.

The grill 40 includes a base layer 40 a made from a metallic materialand an anionic material layer 40 b coated on the base layer 40 a.

A diameter of the reflective vessel 71 gradually increases from a frontend towards a rear end thereof.

An inner surface of the reflective vessel 71 is coated with an anionicmaterial layer.

The nozzle 50 includes a coupling section 51 having a circular sectionalshape and an exhaust section 52 extending from the coupling section 51and having an opening 52, which has a length larger than a diameter ofthe coupling section 51.

The nozzle 50 includes a base layer made from a plastic material and ananionic material layer coated on the base layer.

The heating unit 60 includes the core member 61 having a cross sectionalshape and a heating wire 62 wound around the core member 61. The heatingwire 62 is connected to the external power source through the powercable 35.

An outer surface of the core member 62 is coated with an anionicmaterial layer.

The conventional hair drier having the above structure operates asfollows:

First, when a user turns on the power switch 72, power is supplied tothe motor 33 so that the motor 33 is driven. Accordingly, the fan 34 isrotated by means of the motor 33.

As the fan 34 rotates, a pressure difference may be created between afront portion and a rear portion of the fan 34. That is, pressure in thefront portion of the fan 34 adjacent to the exhaust section 52 becomeslower than pressure in the rear portion of the fan 34 adjacent to thesuction holes 12 a, so that external air is introduced into the casing10 through the suction holes 12 a. The external air introduced into thecasing 10 through the suction holes 12 is exhausted to the exteriorthrough the reflective vessel 71 and the exhaust section 52 of thenozzle 50.

Herein, if the cold wind/hot wind switch 73 is positioned in a hot windmode, power is supplied to the heating wire 62 through the power cable35, so the heating wire 62 generates heat. Accordingly, the external airis heated by means of the heat generated from the heating wire 62 whilepassing through the reflective vessel 71 so that hot wind is exhaustedthrough the exhaust section 52 of the nozzle 50.

At this time, anions and infrared ray generated from the exhaust port20, the reflective vessel 71, the core member 61, the grill 40 and thenozzle 50 are also exhaust through the exhaust section 52 of the nozzle50 together with the hot wind.

However, according to the conventional hair drier, since the anionicmaterial layer 40 a is coated on the outer surface of the grill 40, theanionic material layer 40 a may be laminated from the outer surface ofthe grill 40 as time goes by due to heat generated from the heating wire62.

For this reason, even though the anions can effectively prevent hairfrom being damaged and allow users to easily change their hair styles,the users do not have the benefit of the anions because an anioniceffect may be reduced when the conventional hair drier has been used fora long period of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve theabove-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object ofthe present invention is to provide a hair drier having a grill capableof stably generating anions even if a user has used the hair drier for along period of time.

In order to accomplish the above object, according to the presentinvention, there is provided a hair drier comprising: a casing formed ata rear portion thereof with at least one suction hole; an exhaust pumpcoupled with the casing such that the exhaust pump is exposed to anexterior by passing through a front area of the casing; a nozzle coupledwith a front opening of the exhaust pump; a grill inserted into theexhaust pump adjacent to the nozzle and made from plastic havingthermal-resistant and thermoplastic properties and including an anionmaterial; a heating unit inserted into the exhaust pump at a rearwardarea of the grill; and a blower unit installed in the casing at arearward area of the heating unit in order to suck external air and tointroduce the external air towards the nozzle.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, nozzleis made from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplasticproperties and including an anion material so that the anions can bestably generated from the nozzle even if the user has used the hairdrier for a long period of time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A to 1E are exploded perspective views of a conventional hairdrier;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a grill shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E;

FIG. 3 is an assembled view of a hair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a grill according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference toaccompanying drawings.

A hair drier according to the present invention includes a casing, anexhaust pipe, a blower unit, a reflective vessel and a heating unitidentical to those of the conventional hair drier shown in FIGS. 1A to1E, so repetition of the description on the same or similar componentswill be omitted.

In the following description, the same reference numerals are used todesignate the same or similar components.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the hair drier of the present inventionincludes a grill 140 having a circular outer frame 141 and a pluralityof transverse lattices 142 installed in the circular outer frame 141while forming a regular interval therebetween. A guide rib 142 a isformed at a center portion of each transverse lattice 142.

Even though the hair drier of the present invention has a structureidentical to that of the conventional hair drier, the grill 140 of thepresent invention is manufactured through an injection molding processwithout coating an anionic material layer on an outer surface of thegrill 140 in such a manner that the grill 140 contains anions over thewhole area thereof.

Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the grill 140 and a nozzleaccording to the present invention will be described.

First, tourmaline is pulverized into powder having a size of about 1 to3 μm by means of a ball mill machine or a crusher.

Then, ceramics, such as ZrO₂, SiO₂, or Al₂O₃ having thermal-resistantand thermal-insulation properties with reinforced strength, ispulverized into powder having a size of about 1 to 3 μm through apulverizing process identical to the pulverizing process for tourmaline.

After that, the tourmaline powder is mixed with the ceramics powder in avolume ratio of 1:1 by means of a mixer.

Then, a mixture of the tourmaline powder and ceramics powder(hereinafter, referred to as “additive powder”) is mixed with water andis heated for 24 hours under a high-pressure state.

Thereafter, the heated additive powder is rapidly cooled in a coolingdryer.

Subsequently, the additive powder is mixed with plastic havingthermoplastic and heat-resistant properties, such as PBT (PolybuthyleneTerephthalate) or LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer), together with a littleamount of adhesive agent in a mixer. Herein, a weight ratio of theadditive powder to the plastic is 1:4.

Then, the mixture of the additive powder and the plastic is suppliedinto a cylinder through a hopper in such a manner that the mixture ofthe additive powder and the plastic can be injected into a mold througha nozzle. An internal temperature of the cylinder and a temperature ofthe mold may vary depending on the sort of plastics to be used.

If PBT is used, preferably, the internal temperature of the cylinder isabout 260 to 280° C. and the temperature of the mold is about 80 to 120°C. In addition, if LCP is used, the internal temperature of the cylinderis preferably set to 300 to 340° C. and the temperature of the mold ispreferably set to 340° C.

As described above, according to the present invention, the grill 140 ismanufactured through an injection molding process in such a manner thatthe grill 140 contains an anion material over the whole area of thegrill 140, thereby preventing the anion material from being laminatedfrom the grill 140 even if heat is applied to the grill 140 for a longperiod of time by means of a heating wire.

In addition, according to the present invention, the nozzle ismanufactured through an injection molding process in such a manner thatthe nozzle contains an anion material over the whole area of the nozzle,thereby preventing the anion material from being laminated from thenozzle even if heat is applied to the nozzle for a long period of timeby means of the heating wire.

Accordingly, the grill 140 and the nozzle can stably generate anionseven if the hair drier has been used for a long period of time.

Although the present invention mainly uses tourmaline as an anionmaterial, other anion materials, such as the rare-earth elements(cerium, etc), can be used for the grill and the nozzle of the presentinvention.

According to the present invention, the grill is fabricated such that itcontains the anion material over the whole area thereof so the grill canstably generate the anions even if the grill has been used for a longperiod of time. Therefore, the hair drier according to the presentinvention can achieve an anionic effect so that hair can be preventedfrom being damaged and the users can easily change their hair styles.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims.

1. A hair drier comprising: a casing formed at a rear portion thereofwith at least one suction hole; an exhaust pump coupled with the casingsuch that the exhaust pump is exposed to an exterior by passing througha front area of the casing; a nozzle coupled with a front opening of theexhaust pump; a grill inserted into the exhaust pump adjacent to thenozzle and made from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplasticproperties and including an anion material; a heating unit inserted intothe exhaust pump at a rearward area of the grill; and a blower unitinstalled in the casing at a rearward area of the heating unit in orderto suck external air and to introduce the external air towards thenozzle.
 2. The hair drier as claimed in claim 1, wherein the nozzle ismade from plastic having thermal-resistant and thermoplastic propertiesand including an anion material.